If it’s not a nipple it’s an odd place to deliberately draw a bruise given that the positioning would naturally be confused with a nipple.
Given the skill of the artist, I think it is more likely a deliberate nipple than it is an accidental nipple.

“My master was the greatest lord general to the king Au Vam, Ryo-ten-Ryam, who first coaxed me into learning the ways of turning men into ghosts. As his interest quickly turned to the wholly uninteresting and most useless parts of my body, I returned the favor and relieved him of his.”
-Meti’s Sword Manual, Argument 3

To see brothers of the Iron temple bring knowledge and wit to the far corners of the great interwebs, it brings a tear to the eye. It seems as though lately many more are following the iron path, following it down to healthier and happier lifestyle.

In the first, that Cio grows further from her pretense at an internal skeleton is pleasing to me from a creature-design perspective.
In the second, that Cio’s blade was blocked by the very book which contains her chronicles of the Rising King and mysterious yet charming stranger is pleasing to me from a poetic perspective.
In the third, that Cio’s claws laid bare Alison’s breast is pleasing to me from a historical perspective (specifically, as a reader of Cioelle’s nice and accurate histories).

Blast and bother this vexsome comments box and bother and blast my own addled pate for relying too oft on auto-complete.
I forgot my own damn name.
It’s “Denies”, not “Devours”.
At least, for the moment.

Friend, while the words of a textbook may be heavy, they’re not nearly as heavy as the heart of those who bear them.

I’ve heard there’s a sort of tea that helps. It’s made from a strange bean. When this bean is roasted, ground, and placed in a filter through which boiling water is poured, it creates a tea that is pungent and sweet in odor. It’s quite bitter to drink, but restores life to those with weary minds and bodies. It’s called many things, but you may know it as “Coffee.”

Common is the liqueur of blue and grey. Red, less so, with gold grown rare and green rare still. Ebon liqueur is but myth and legend, in the earliest days from the shaping of masks and the wielding of names.

Yet rarest of all, most impossible of all things, is a devil’s tear. The devil is stone and fire, formless chaos twisted into impulse and desire. For what does the devil weep? To whom does the devil care for beyond itself? For the tear is born of Aesma’s mortal gift, waters shed in mourning for time forever ill spent.

Should you ever see such a wonder, hold it close. Bottle it in the finest trueglass, and bring it to the Reformed Archivists’ Guild, Shades Branch, in exchange for no less than five gilded saint’s skulls, jeweled inlaids and in pristine condition.

Once while I was training in the arts of combat I spied a blue devil watching me, and I swear on my shield I saw their eyes grow wet. For what reason I can’t imagine, maybe they thought me a delicious morsel they could never eat, or some other reason, but I never gave it thought. I’ve not seen them since I’d left my mentor’s house.

Had I known a devil’s tears were of value, I would’ve decked her in the chest and freed her tears from her eyes. Likely a mistake, I probably would’ve been fatally mauled, and perhaps the teary sheen was only a trick of the light, but the reward measures fairly worth the risk if that bounty can be vouched for.

I must admit I feel quite sorry for that long-suffering Servant who took the blade in Allison’s defense. Paper does not heal quite so readily as flesh, nor does it shrug off injury so well as the flesh of devils.

I will have it known that I am most emphatically *not* pleased by this turn of events. While it is preferable that the Key not fall into the hands of a demon, I would not sacrifice my kin to prevent that from coming to pass. They are both culpable in this murder, and by my hand they will both answer for it.

Although I do request that you not try to murder the nascent King of Kings or her Chronicler. I am rather fond of both, and the reason for my joining of the Knights Belligerent rests squarely on a metahistorical text that tells a fragment of Alice-Un’s rise to infinite prominence.

Can one reconcile when they were never really friendly in the first place?
Because lets be honest here, Alison has been a asshole to Cio from the start well before any influence from Incubus.
The start of a freindship perhaps?

Will this show of forgiveness and friendship be enough for the Reverend Mother to believe them more than heartless wretches? Will Cio get her glasses and hat back too? And will Allison be able to find a new T-shirt amongst all that gold?
Stay tuned and find out in… KILL SIX BILLION DEMONS!

Kudos! Kudos, I say!
To be brought forth,
in a cup brimming,
For the Princeling
of Verse Singing!
(Singing is one of the many Arts pursued by those who follow the Path of Truths/Lies. Not to be held inferior to Cutting, or other Dramatics)

Hmm… Never judge a book by its cover, maybe? Not tryin’ to sound terribly racist or nuthin, but most a’ y’all book-folks look about the same to the rest of us. I figured that was why book-folk wear their titles out in the open like that – so other folks could tell y’all apart. >.>

I know everyone is very fond of the Cio-Alison ship, and I hate to be an iceberg, but I personally hope it’s permanently sunk after this.

I don’t care if Cio regrets this, I don’t care if they stay friends afterward or whatever, but I just don’t think it’s right to ship two characters when one of them brutalized the other like this, even if she just “lost herself” for a minute. That’s exactly what abusive relationships in real life are like. “Oh, I’m sorry, honey, I didn’t mean to hurt you, I just lost control!”

And that’s not to say Alison hasn’t also wronged Cio. Alison’s working out her own issues, with being a god now and all. I think she and Cio should just give each other some space.

Let the ship sink all the way to the bottom of the ocean. They can be friends together on the lifeboat.

And no, I just do not see Yab as analogous to anger management issues, nor do I see Cio and Allison’s relationship being abusive. In a fantasy story like this, you need more than an event like this, bloody as it was, to describe two characters as having an abusive, dysfunctional relationship.
An abusive relationship needs to be a far more prevalent aspect of the characters’ interactions, and Cio and Allison do not otherwise have a relationship colored by abuse.
Compare it to, say, Twilight, or its fanfiction offspring Fifty Shades of Grey. Those relationships are thoroughly dysfunctional and abusive, and it colors every aspect of the characters’ relationships even outside of the literally violent encounters. (tons of stalking, frequent privacy invasion, romantic coercion, severe jealousy and mistrust, etc)
Mistrust and suspicion has been the biggest wedge between Allison and Cio, and it’s basically gone now. They’ll be actual friends now regardless because of it, and I do not see this event as a ship sinker either. If it was, it wouldn’t even make sense for them to be friends.
Friendships can be abusive just like romantic relationships, and both are absolute nonos.
Denying possible positive romantic development yet accepting the forging of an actual friendship after this event would be hypocrisy and cherry-picking.

This story seems to be the kind where happily ever after type romance wouldn’t even happen, and I don’t think anybody really seriously ships these two. At least I personally don’t. I think they’d be cute together outside the context of this story in like a normal life situations and stuff, and that’s it.

Until recently Alison pretty much had a different part of herself driving, one that pretty much left Cio for dead. And who knows where things might have gone if the explosives hadn’t cut that conversation short.

Upon waking in the rubble Cio seemed to have another part of herself driving as well.

It just feels similar to me. Neither wanted what happened, and both alternates are pretty bad. This is just a setting where that is actually a thing, unlike real life.

Making Cio attacking Alison out like it similar to a common abusive relationship is nonsense. If this “ship sinks” it’s not because Cio is abusive, if anything it is the other way around.
It’s not like Alison’s wrong to her is a small thing, she intentionally left her to die under a pile of rubble (and with the way things were going in that scene if the explosion hadn’t done it for her she probably would have attacked her). Both Cio’s attacking Alison here and Alison leaving Cio to die could maybe be excused as them “under the influence” but Alison has also been treating Cio like trash before this.

Friends can be abusive, too, and Allison was at least as “abusive” as Cio earlier. Neither of them were themselves. This whole chapter has been about exploring the characters’ worst selves, and I’m inclined to forgive them their jaunt into evil.

Most abusive relationships don’t involve getting taken over by a bitchy part of yourself enhanced by the power of a God. Nor do they involve one member of the relationship slipping into a literal beastial demonic state and lose all control after getting betrayed and crushed under falling rubble

Having been in abusive, toxic relationships — both friendships and romantic — and on both sides of the abuse (I have gotten actual, professional therapy on this matter, and I know that I’m not ready for romance again yet… but that’s another story. And I am MUCH better than I was)… this isn’t an abusive relationship. Far, far from it. And as someone who has lived through the genuine article, I’m a bit insulted at the comparison. This feels more like an accusation by someone who dislikes the ship for other reasons to try to throw dirt on other people’s ships than a genuine expression of concern — something I see far too often in certain fan communities these days.

Up until Incubus’ meddling, Cio and Allison’s relationship was about as normal as could be expected in the bizarro-world circumstances of the Seven-Part World. Cio was a little bit fangirlish, but neither one was taking advantage of the other’s good faith, and (from what I can tell) Cio’s fangirling had never crossed the line into outright *stalking*. Neither was using violence (physical OR emotional) as a tool to control the other. I do not recall any incidents of gaslighting or even dishonesty — they were pretty up-front and open with each other. And they tried to help each other to the best of their confused, fish-out-of-water wow-wtf-is-happening abilities.

What’s going on RIGHT NOW is an extreme end of something that can happen in perfectly normal, even healthy relationships — there was a grave misunderstanding due to a lack of information (and illness, even, if we consider Allison’s mental split to be mental illness) and severe stress. Due to the nature of the actors involved (nascent god-king and former Black Devil) it escalated into severe physical violence, but that has more to do with the *nature of the world that this exists in* than any existence of abuse. Were this a slice of life high school AU, this would be Allison and Cio having planned a big prank on the SGA treasurer with the local school n’er do wells, said prank went super sideways, Cio and Allison’s egos both got in the way, and it ended with a vicious shouting match in which both said a lot of things neither should have which hurt each other very badly.

I digress with overwrought metaphors. The MAIN REASON this isn’t an example of an abusive relationship is the lack of antecedents to the abuse. UP UNTIL Incubus’ meddling & Cio feeling she needed to pull on her old self’s power, there was no manipulation, gaslighting, or abuse (physical or emotional). There really is a difference between an awful one-time fight and an ongoing problem of abuse. Now, if they CONTINUE to have this problem in the future, or if they resort to manipulative behavior, THAT’S abuse. But this incident in itself isn’t.

It is said in the Psalms “And Yisun spoke to a young Hansa at a crossroads as he stared at a young woman. Selfishness is at the heart of love, this is to be desired”
Truly, Yisun the omnipotent and non-existent is a consummate liar.

I just wonder how the rest of the party is getting on right now. Charon and Princess were looking especially worse for wear even before everything went explosively tits-up, but as they say, until you see the corpse, they’re not really dead.